Topics to be covered on diabetes will consist of: physiology of exercise with diabetes, macro and micro vascular complication of diabetes, motivational interviewing techniques with diabetes patents, appropriate insulin based carbohydrate count and identify current medication related to diabetes.

The program is designed for Physicians, PAs, APRN’s, Registered Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses, Social Workers, PTs, OTs, and other interested Healthcare Professionals. All participants are required to complete and sign a “verification of attendance” form. After the program, a certificate of completion will be provided to activity participants based on documentation of actual attendance time.

This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essential Areas and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education through the joint providership of the University of Kansas Medical Center Office of Continuing Medical Education and Hays Medical Center. The University of Kansas Medical Center Office of Continuing Medical Education is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.

The KU Medical Center Office of Continuing Medical Education designates this live activity for a maximum of 5.5AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

HaysMedicalCenter is approved as a provider of continuing nursing education by the Kansas State Board of Nursing. The course offering is approved for 5.5 contact hour applicable for RN or LPN re-licensure. Kansas State Board of Nursing Approved Provider Number: LT0021-1138.

The Hays Medical Center Respiratory Care Continuing Education Evaluator on behalf of the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts has approved this program 5.5 CRCE Hours. Providership No. 004

Paperwork will be provided to submit to KOTA and KPTA for credits.

An application has been submitted to ASRT. Approval is pending.

Ellis County EMS is an approved as a provider of continuing education for Emergency Medical Personnel. The course offering is approved for 5.5 contact hour applicable for all EMS recertification. Approved Provider Number: pp5800

The fee is $30 for CAH hospitals and $60 for non HMC Associates. There is no fee for HaysMed, Pawnee Valley Community Hospital and St. Rose Health Center Associates.

HAYS, Kan. (Oct. 27, 2016) An All American Breakfast will be held Sunday, December 4, from 7:30 am – 12:30 pm at the American Legion, 13th and Canterbury in Hays. Tickets must be purchased in advance in order to benefit Hospice.

The all you can eat menu includes pancakes, sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, hash browns, biscuits, gravy, toast, coffee and juice.

Tickets are $8.00 for Adults. $3.00 for children 5-12 and children under 5 eat free. Tickets at the door are $8.50.

HaysMed Hospice focuses on comfort and quality of life when a cure is not possible, honoring the wishes of the person and their family. They provide services in Ellis, Rooks, Russell and Rush counties.

HAYS, Kan. (Oct. 27, 2016) – HaysMed Hospice once again will be sponsoring a Community Memory Tree. With the holiday season approaching you can honor someone special in your life by donating $20 to the HaysMed Hospice. A brass dove ornament will be then be engraved with the name of the person you are honoring or remembering. The doves will be placed on one of two trees located at HaysMed and in the Dessin Fournir building at 308 W. Mill in Plainville.

For over 30 years, Hospice at HaysMed has lit the community and the surrounding area with hope, comfort and understanding for the terminally ill and their families. Donations enhance the resources available for education, support the volunteer and bereavement programs in their entirety and cover patient-related expenses not paid for by insurances.

Contributions are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. The Memory Tree form is available at https://www.haysmed.com/hospice/

Each quarter HaysMed recognizes the patient satisfaction award winners based on results from CAHPS (Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) surveys administrated by HealthStream. HealthStream is the research firm HaysMed contracts with to conduct the government required Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) hospital surveys on patient experience. The CAHPS survey is the first national, standardized, publicly reported survey of patients’ perspectives of hospital care. The CAHPS Hospital Survey is a survey instrument and data collection methodology for measuring patients’ perceptions of their hospital experience.

CPCU had the highest in-patient overall rating for the third quarter of 2016. Their unit score was 82.1% and that puts them at the 83rd percentile. This exceeds the hospital goal of the 75th percentile. Their top performance areas on the survey included providing written discharge instructions, courtesy/respect of nurses and nurses listening carefully to patients.

The Dreiling/Schmidt Cancer Institute had the highest overall rating for the third quarter of 2016. Their overall rating was 94.7% and that puts them at the 97th percentile. This exceeds the hospital goal of the 75th percentile. Their top performance areas on the survey included clear communication by provider, provider listening clearly and courtesy/respect of clerks and receptionists

Environmental Services was recognized as one of the many ancillary departments that help support patient satisfaction in the hospital. This is the first time HaysMed has recognized an ancillary department with this award. For the third quarter of 2016 the inpatient cleanliness score was 80.4 % which is the 72nd percentile. The outpatient cleanliness score was 79.7% which is the 79th percentile. In addition in our recent DNV survey they were recognized for the cleanliness of the hospital for the patient areas, public areas and even the storage areas. The surveyors noted they had never seen a cleaner hospital.

Outpatient Rehab was recognized as the out-patient area with the highest patient overall rating for the third quarter of 2016. Their overall rating was 91.7% and that puts them at the 93rd percentile. This exceeds the hospital goal of the 75th percentile. Their top performance areas on the survey include patient involvement in treatment plan/goal setting, amount of time spent waiting at the facility and the ability to schedule visit on a convenient day and time.

Each area honored displays a patient satisfaction award winner banner in their department.

Hays, Kansas (October 24, 2016) – The next session of Coffee and Conversation will be held Tuesday, November 1, at the HaysMed Orthopedic Institute Lobby, 2500 Canterbury Drive, Hays Kansas. Participants are asked to use the west parking lot E.

The program will feature a presentation and roundtable discussion with Dr. Mohammed Janif, MD, Cardiologist, HaysMed DeBakey Heart Institute and Andrea Harmoney, MS, RD, LD, Dietitian at HaysMed. Topic for the discussion is “Heart Healthy eating During the Holidays”

The program begins at 5:30 pm with healthy snacks followed by the discussion from 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm. The program is designed for those who have had Open Heart Surgery, Stents (PTCA), Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) or a Health Attack (MI) and the people who care about them.

Cooking classes aim to bring back basics

It could not be argued that John Fitzthum was in his element Thursday night.

Hays Medical Center’s executive chef and food service director stood in the center of the education room at the Center for Health Improvement, surrounded by smoke that was quickly filling the room from vegetables sizzling in saute pans.

“This is my favorite thing in the world,” he said with a big grin. “All this smoke, I love it.”

And although the smoke caused many of the 20 students in the “I Can Cook” class to cough and wipe their eyes, they enjoyed the opportunity to learn new skills.

The class was the first in a series of monthly classes presented by the center and HaysMed. A grant through the HaysMed Foundation allowed for the purchase of equipment such as induction stoves, pans, utensils and aprons for the classes, which will run through September. Participants get to take home an “I Can Cook” potholder, along with the food they prepare in class.

The purpose of the classes is to help bring people back to healthy eating, even in today’s busy society, said HaysMed dietician Andrea Harmoney, who assisted in teaching Thursday’s class.

“A lot of people don’t even know how to cook basic things anymore, so we’re taking it back to using those fresh ingredients,” she said.

Although prepackaged food might contain vegetables, they aren’t as healthy as fresh, Harmoney told the class.

“The process those vegetables have taken to get through the store and to your house, there’s been a lot of cooking and heating where you do lose a bit of nutrients. Not to say those aren’t still valuable nutrients in there, but directly from a fresh ingredient is the way to go.”

Fitzthum taught food safety and basic knife skills Thursday through a simple recipe for mirepoix — a French term for a mixture of roughly cut vegetables that can be used as a flavor base for soups, stews and other dishes.

“You can do anything with that. You can add a pineapple to it and a little bit of soy sauce and brown sugar, and all of a sudden you’ve turned it into an Asian dish,” he said.

Preparing a mirepoix can help reduce food waste, too, as the ingredients — even the peelings and scraps — can be used to make stock for soups, Fitzthum said. The scraps from Thursday’s class were saved and will be used for stock for a future class.

Fitzthum explained what different knives are used for and how to safely use them, then moved from station to station to supervise and demonstrate as the class chopped thyme and rosemary and diced onions, celery and carrots — all of which came from Bethesda Place, a farm outside of Hays that is home for mentally disabled men who grow and sell produce and trees.

The diced vegetables were then sautéed, and the chef brought in pans of cooked rice for the class members to dish up with their mirepoix.

Kathy Clark was convinced by her friend, Donna Cooper, both of Hays, to take the class. They were impressed with the taste of the dish.

“It’s an easy supper,” Cooper said.

Clark said she used to do more cooking than she does now, but that might change after taking the class.

“It makes me excited to cook again,” she said.

Connie Dreher, Hays, said learning knife skills was what interested her in the class.

“It was something that I really needed to learn,” she said. “I learned how to use a bigger knife than I’ve ever used.”

A steady line of vehicles moved through the driveway and into the north parking area of Hays Medical Center.

Participants picked up a sheet for anyone with them at the first stopping point, and then moved on to wait for the next process. It signaled the HaysMed drive-thru flu shot clinic had arrived once again Sunday.

The annual event was filled with a flow of cars, trucks, SUV’s and even a few people on bicycles. From start to end, the line extended out from the entrance at Canterbury Drive into the parking lot east of the Center for Health Improvement.

The process went about as smooth as possible, officials said.

“We’ve been lucky,” said Kim Koerner, infection prevention and associate health nurse at HaysMed. “We meet after the flu drive and discuss what worked and what didn’t and things we need to improve on. We do that every year. It’s just that we’ve had it for so many years, it’s starting to work really well.”

The flu drive usually consists of approximately 120 to 150 volunteers. Some of those volunteers come from the Fort Hays State University nursing program. It’s a partnership Koerner started with the college to give students a chance to be a part of administering vaccines for clinical experience.

Koerner said it is the second year the students have received clinical experience with the drive. The students were volunteering before last year, but it wasn’t a formal partnership.

“We like to do this as a community effort,” Koerner said. “Partnering up with Fort Hays gives them clinical experience. This helps prepare (students) for the work experience.”

The event is able to be put on every year through the support of the HaysMed Foundation. With donations through the community to the foundation, vaccinations are made available for the drive.

“I know it gets increasingly more and more expensive each year,” Koerner said. “If I remember correctly, I think it costs (the foundation) between $35,000 to $40,000 just for the vaccine.”

The drive thru portion of the clinic is for adults. Children 6 months and older who take part in the vaccination go through the gym inside the CHI building. Adults with the children also can receive their shot inside the building. There were five lanes for drivers to go through, with 10 stations in all. Inside, there were 10 stations for pediatrics and eight for adults.

By the time cleanup started after the drive Sunday, Koerner said she was estimating they were near the average of 3,500 participants. The largest number for the drive Koerner could remember was approximately 3,900.

“This is possible because of the HaysMed Foundation,” Koerner said. “They support this completely.”

WESTWOOD, Mass., Oct. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Hays Medical Center (Hays, KS) announced they will continue their partnership with MEDITECH by moving forward with the company’s Web Electronic Health Record (EHR). MEDITECH’s EHR will support the private, not-for-profit 207-bed community hospital in providing the best care for patients across their region.

“A strong partnership, in addition to robust interoperability and system-wide integration, was what we wanted from an EHR and partner — and we have that with MEDITECH,” John Jeter, MD, president and CEO at HaysMed said. “MEDITECH’s exceptional customer support was another driving factor that led to our decision to move forward with the Web EHR.”

Hays Medical Center located in Hays, Kansas.

A MEDITECH client since 2003, HaysMed will start their Web Ambulatory and Acute implementation in December 2016. Designed by physicians for physicians, the new web platform accelerates care delivery with a complete web chart, giving physicians instant access to all patient records across the continuum.

According to Dr. Jeter, once physicians at HaysMed saw the Web EHR in action, they were impressed by the minute by minute updates on patients, smooth transitions of care, streamlined workflows, and the ability to access the platform on multiple smart devices.

“The sleek look-and-feel and ease of use attracted us to MEDITECH’s Web EHR,” Dr. Jeter said. “As an ED physician myself, I understand the importance of an EHR tool that is intuitive, efficient, and supports daily tasks such as entering orders or documenting patient visits. I believe MEDITECH’s EHR hits the mark in terms of fostering quality patient care delivery and matching physicians’ workflows.”

MEDITECH’s commitment to shaping and driving interoperability initiatives was another key reason HaysMed made the decision to continue its partnership with MEDITECH. As a member of the CommonWell Health Alliance, HL7 FHIR Argonaut Project, and participation in numerous national organizations, MEDITECH is ensuring its customers can safely and securely exchange patient data across care settings, local HIE exchanges, and federal and local health agencies.

“We’re pleased to continue our relationship with HaysMed and to be their partner in delivering quality patient care,” Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing at MEDITECH, Helen Waters said. “HaysMed represents the next generation of progressive, EHR consumers leveraging our clinically-integrated Web EHR to elevate physician productivity and enhance the patient experience.”

Hays, KS (Oct. 11, 2016) The HaysMed Birthing Center will host Remembering Together Remembrance Walk on Sunday, October 16th. Participants are asked to meet in Hadley Room 2 at HaysMed at 2:00 pm. The group will be walking on the fitness trail so please dress for appropriate weather conditions. This special service is for anyone who has experienced a loss through miscarriage, stillbirth or infant loss.

The program will feature a presentation followed by a question and answer discussion with Dr. Alex DeCarvalho, Orthopedic Surgeon and Mark Heimerman, Physician Assistant, both from the Hays Orthopedic Institute. Topic for the discussion is “Doc, why does my shoulder hurt?”

The program begins at 6:00 pm with registration and healthy snacks followed by the presentation and discussion from 6:15 pm – 7:15 pm. The program is designed for those who have orthopedic needs and the people who care about them.